Kindergarten Readiness – Is your child ready for kindergaten?
Are you wondering if your child is ready to go to kindergarten? Kindergarten is a great way to help a child build a good foundation for their academic life. However, some children need more time alone and are not ready to handle kindergarten. Putting such children in kindergarten can cause a lot of frustration for the child and parent alike, and can even affect the child to the extent that they start hating school. It is therefore important for parents to know if their child is ready, and also to support them during this transition. Here are some points to bear in mind when assessing if your child is ready for kindergarten.
Physical readiness for kindergarten
A child needs to feel independent physically before he is ready to be left alone in a new and strange environment.
- Can your child walk by his/her own?
- Can your child wash his/her hands and eat independently?
- Is your child able to take off and put on outer clothing?
- Will your child be able to indicated that he/she needs to go to the toilet and do so independently?
If your child is not able to do any of these activities, he/she may first need some home training. A child on a wheelchair may need to be taught modified ways of doing self care activities and also trained in using the wheelchair before he is ready to attend kindergarten independently.
Kindergarten social interaction and communication
Many children find it difficult to cope with the social and communication demands faced at kindergarten. Children who don’t have siblings often find it difficult to cope with other children. They find it difficult to share toys, attention and opportunities. Some children who have not developed language skills may find it difficult to express their needs or emotions, and this can be the cause for some behavior problems. Other children find it difficult to stay for long periods of time without their parents , but children usually cope with it in a couple of weeks or so. Children therefore need to be given opportunities to play and meet other children before beings ready for kindergarten. They also need to learn ways to communicate their basic needs to adults.
Preparing a child for kindergarten
Preparing a child for kindergarten usually involves helping a child to be independent in basic self care, and also helping a child cope with social demands of preschool. Giving opportunities to children to play with other children helps develop social skills and helps them cope better at kindergarten. Talk to children about kindergarten and present it to them as a fun and exciting new thing that is going to happen in their life This helps them build a positive attitude towards kindergarten. Shopping for bags,clothes and stationery can also help children look forward to kindergarten.
Supporting your child in kindergarten
Children need a lot of support to help them cope with changes in their life, like the first few months of kindergarten. To help them through this, parents can help by picking up children and dropping them in school. Another approach is to be interactive and interested in the daily activities – ask your child to show the art work or other projects they have done during the day and to put it up in the home where everyone can see it. Parents should talk to the teacher to find
out more about how the child is doing in class. In this way the child knows that they are being monitored and have not bee abandoned in kindergarten.
